FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, November 30, 2015

Brooklyn Man Pleads Guilty to Stabbing Death of Wife
Following Argument in Bay Ridge Apartment

Defendant to Receive 18 Years at Sentencing

Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson today announced that a 54-year-old Bay Ridge man has pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter for the stabbing death of his 46-year-old wife following an argument inside of their apartment last year.

District Attorney Thompson said, “This defendant senselessly killed his wife – the mother of his four children – who are now left with no parents to care for them as he will be spending many years in prison.”

The District Attorney identified the defendant as Hasan Rugova, 54, of 101 Marine Avenue, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. The defendant today pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree manslaughter before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice John Ingram, who indicated he would sentence the defendant to a determinate term of 18 years in prison and five years’ post-release supervision when he is sentenced on December 9, 2015.

The District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, on May 20, 2014, at approximately 2 a.m., at 101 Marine Avenue, the defendant’s 14-year-old son observed the defendant, his father, repeatedly stabbing his wife, Gyltene Rugova (who was the child’s mother), in the chest and neck with a knife and intervened, pulling the defendant off of his wife. The defendant then stabbed himself in the stomach. The teen sustained a slash to his arm and was treated at the hospital with stitches and released.

Furthermore, according to the investigation, the stabbing occurred after Gyltene Rugova indicated she wanted a divorce from the defendant. Gyltene Rugova died as a result of multiple stab wounds to her chest and neck, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Cynthia A. Lynch and Joan Erskine, of the District Attorney’s Domestic Violence Bureau, under the supervision of Michelle L. Kaminsky, Bureau Chief.